LONDON, February 7, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Commentators, bloggers, and columnists alike were aghast this evening as Rowan Williams, the Anglican Archbishop of Canterbury, told the BBC that Britain had to "face up to the fact" that the encroachment of Islamic Sharia law into the British legal system is "unavoidable".

The titular head of the Church of England suggested in an interview with BBC Radio 4's World at One programme that, because they are both "religious", there is an equivalence between the brutal system of Sharia and the principles of the Natural Law upon which western jurisprudence is based. "The eternal law of religious communities is recognized by the law of the land," he said.

Dr. Williams argued that since British law "accommodates" the views of Catholics and some others on abortion, Sharia should be welcomed on the grounds of tolerance for religious viewpoints. And anyway, he said, "certain provisions of Sharia are already recognized...So it's not as if we're bringing in an alien and rival system."

Williams said "creative accommodation" of Sharia is justified because of the way "the consciences of Catholics, Anglicans and others who have difficulty about issues like abortion are accommodated within the law."

Within hours of the BBC interview being posted to their website, hundreds of commenters had written in to the site protesting, and some calling for Williams' resignation. Damien Thompson, editor of the Catholic Herald newspaper and a blogger at the Daily Telegraph, wrote that the Archbishop's comments were the "most monumentally stupid thing I have ever heard an Archbishop of Canterbury say. In fact, it's more than stupid: it's disgusting."